Guns, gangs and meth top of mind for Regina police chief

The prevalence of meth, guns and gangs continue to be the biggest challenge for Regina's police chief Evan Bray. He expects that will remain true in 2020.

"These are what drove Regina's rising crime rates," Bray said during an end-of-year interview.

Bray is focused on enforcement, but also acknowledged the need to consider the root causes of crime.

"Drug related crime starts with addiction," Bray said. "Stats are people and we forget that sometimes...this is individual people in our community that are vulnerable and that are being victimized." 

Bray said helping people overcome addictions means they'll be less likely to be involved in high-risk situations that require police. He said tackling addiction demands collaboration with municipal and provincial partners, but that he also believes frontline officers can make a difference.

"I use the analogy of the police officer taking the hand and putting it through to another hand," he said. "It may be that if we arrest someone we need those supports to then be in court...or do that follow up work with them after they're released from our custody." 

• RPS chief sets sights on 'monster issue' of gun violence as reported crime hits 10-year high
• Regina, Saskatoon have some of the highest crime severity numbers in the country

He spoke about connecting people with counselling, support services, or housing, "one case at a time." 

There's not a formal procedure for this. Bray said he isn't always sure if front line officers are connecting people. For example, he said he wasn't sure if, on Dec. 20, frontline officers had connected Rocky Lonechild — the man at the centre of a controversial arrest that was caught on camera — with support. 

Bray told the public that officers had been informed the man was high on meth, although later confirmed he was unaware if that had been confirmed with a drug test.

• Family of man charged 'shocked' by video showing man's arrest by Regina police
• Independent investigation to be held into controversial on-camera arrest, police chief says

"I didn't read that investigation, so I'm not sure where we got to on it, but I mean that's the reality of the work that we do every day whether it's whether it's an addiction problem, whether it's a gang affiliation," he said. "There's lots of different ways we need to do it and we should be doing it on a regular basis."

Looking to aerial support unit

Regina City council approved a $96-million budget for Regina police in 2020 — an increase from $92 million the year prior. The RPS is adding 14 new positions and Bray said they will ask for increases over the new few years to up staffing levels again.

• Homemade guns built for less than $20 are 'up close and personal' weapons present in Saskatchewan

He's also got his eye on an aerial support unit that could serve Regina and potentially lend a hand to neighbouring municipalities. 

When asked about increasing weapon power, Bray said the police service isn't looking to add another $375,000 armoured vehicle to their arsenal, nor are they looking to upgrade their semi-automatic carbine rifles. 

Earlier this year experts from the U.S. suggested Operation Ceasefire, an approach to reducing gang violence born in Boston in the 1990s, when youth homicides in the city had spiralled out of control, could work for Regina. 

• 'Crazy out there': Increasing violence in North Central Regina has residents looking for solutions
• When 'loyalty or death' crumbles: Leaving gangs after 15 years in the life

"There are some parallels that can't be drawn," Bray said, pointing to jurisdictional issues for funding, policing, probation and health.

"The anatomy of the gang problem in the early 90s in Boston was very much random turf war violence," he added."They would go into enemy territory and they were randomly shooting one another and that was the experience. They had 175 homicides in one year."

For Regina, Bray said it's less about territory and more about drug rip offs and gang-related domestics, involving partners, exes or acquaintances. 

• Violent offences down overall in Regina but attempted murder spiked: RPS
• Family of Regina's 9th homicide victim heading into Christmas without answers

Shifts for 2020

Police members are also meeting with incarcerated people to talk about exiting a gang or keeping safe once they are released and hold running relationships with some gang members not in custody. 

• 3 people charged after Regina police raid nets 2 kg of meth along with other drugs
• 'Escalates quickly into a real community safety issue': Saskatchewan struggling with crystal meth addiction

Bray said there will also be more collaboration within the police service moving forward in 2020 to provide a more "robust" response to crime. 

"We've made a few different changes. We have aligned some of our investigative teams with our frontline officers," he said. 

"Aligning our drug investigators with our gang investigators and our investigators that are gonna be coming in as a crime response unit — that are likely going to do a lot of work focused on firearm related crime, knowing that those are intertwined and interrelated."